Urban Squatters: The Relevance of the Hong Kong Experience

Dwyer, D. J.

doi:10.2307/2642958

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…First fortified in 1668, the Walled City remained insignificant in Chinese civil and military affairs until the British first occupied Hong Kong Island in 1841 during the First Opium War between Great Britain and the Qing Dynasty of imperial China [14] (pp. [30][31]. In 1846, the Viceroy of the Two Guangs (兩廣總督) suggested the construction of a "walled-city", completed the following year [14] (p. 31).…”

Section: Kowloon Walled Citymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After rendering more than 50,000 tenement dwellers homeless in one night, the Shek Kip Mei (石硤尾) fire of 25 December 1953, prompted two urban planning responses: unregulated high-density housing and land advocated to "be less than that occupied by the same number of people in squatter conditions [9,30] (p. 95; p. 610)". Astoundingly, only two people died in the Shek Kip Mei fire [9] (p. 95).…”

Section: Squats Tenements and Firesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Manuel Castells, a sociologist and urban studies scholar, contends the Shek Kip Mei fire heralded a full-fledged public housing system in the Colony [31] (p. 1). From 1955 to 1968, the Hong Kong Resettlement Department erected 466 "resettlement blocks" as a response to the Shek Kip Mei fire [30] (p. 610). The fire was a landmark event that galvanized public policy, embodying "social paternalism of the administrative class [31] (p. 150)".…”

Section: Squats Tenements and Firesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By the mid-1960s, the influx of squatters into the Colony had temporarily leveled off due to an unprecedented resettlement program and a sharp decline in real estate activity [30] (p. 609). This development was additionally complemented by the government recording forty-three percent of the population living in government or governmentsubsidized housing [32] (p. 17).…”

Section: Hong Kong Public Housing and The Hong Kong Housing Authoritymentioning

confidence: 99%

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From Cyberpunk to Cramped Dweller: The Peculiar History of Hong Kong ‘Heterotopias’

McCoy

2021

Histories

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75.6% of land comprising Hong Kong remains undeveloped according to the special administrative region’s planning department. In turn, Hong Kong’s constricted real estate, now estimated to be the world’s costliest, has created eye-popping living arrangements historically and contemporarily. Denizens’ colorful reputation and imagination for flouting city ordinances, zoning laws, and spatial management stand emblematic of tenacious self-sufficiency and a free-spirited brand of runaway capitalist initiative. Why is this conspicuous trademark of Hong Kong’s societal fabric very much alive in the 21st Century? Why does this matter in a rapidly urbanizing world witnessing the ascension of mega-urban centers alongside ever-widening socioeconomic chasms? This paper intends to illuminate the peculiar origins and longevity of the Kowloon Walled City, an urban monolith of notoriety and autonomy that blossomed in a semi-legal grey zone unencumbered under British protectorate rule for nearly a century. Parallels will connect the linear trajectory between Kowloon’s hardnosed living to today’s comparable Chungking Mansions and the hundreds of thousands of cage homes appearing in all corners of the city. This paper aims to answer why these residential paradoxes continue to function with efficiency and relevancy, posing solutions for indigent housing while exacerbating the stigma of social and economic ostracism.

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Section: Kowloon Walled Citymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Squats Tenements and Firesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Squats Tenements and Firesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Hong Kong Public Housing and The Hong Kong Housing Authoritymentioning

confidence: 99%

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From Cyberpunk to Cramped Dweller: The Peculiar History of Hong Kong ‘Heterotopias’

McCoy

2021

Histories

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“…In real practice, only squatters occupying land urgently needed for planned development were resettled. Those occupying hilly slopes and land with little development value were left untouched (Dwyer 1970:610, Hopkins 1971:293, Hopkins 1969:8, Chan 1999. This suggests that the early resettlement programme was motivated primarily by the economic reason of freeing lands for profitable development.…”

Section: Hybrid Of Marxian and Confucian Concept Of Justicementioning

confidence: 99%

An Interplay Between Western and Confucian Concepts of Justice: Development of Hong Kong Housing Policy

Yung

2007

Housing, Theory and Society

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The concept of social justice has been debated keenly, although consensus on its definition remains elusive. This paper examines and dissects various concepts of justice in the context of the development of housing policy in Hong Kong. It demonstrates how the conceptual complexity of justice involves the principles of needs, rights, deserts and equal opportunity and the ways in which the interpretation of these principles differ significantly and fundamentally within Western and Confucian approaches. The historical expressions of justice in the development of Hong Kong's housing policy can be divided into five broad periods, which illustrate the operation of different concepts of justice. Social justice may be pursued as an integral part of a housing policy, as a means to further other ends, or as a passive by-product. A housing policy is inadequate if it wholly disregards justice. A housing policy that rests solely on justice, on the other hand, may prove equally inadvisable. Hong Kong is a place where East meets West, and where an interplay between Western and Confucian concepts of justice has an impact on formulation of housing policy.

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Extreme Poverty of the 1950s, King’s Park and Tung Tau Tsuen

Chu¹

2004

The Maryknoll Sisters in Hong Kong, 1921–1969

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Urban Squatters: The Relevance of the Hong Kong Experience

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

From Cyberpunk to Cramped Dweller: The Peculiar History of Hong Kong ‘Heterotopias’

From Cyberpunk to Cramped Dweller: The Peculiar History of Hong Kong ‘Heterotopias’

An Interplay Between Western and Confucian Concepts of Justice: Development of Hong Kong Housing Policy

Extreme Poverty of the 1950s, King’s Park and Tung Tau Tsuen

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